EGO

BLOG CARNIVAL

2009-11-20T07:46:00.000-08:00

Please read my post, GOODTHING IN LIFE CARNIVAL AND CHAT, and then submit your entry at Blog Carnival.

About this edition: Please send your Thanksgiving recipes. It is time we are commemorating the first official Thanksgiving in Jamestown, Virginia.

If you don't have a recipe related to Thanksgiving, please tell me about your favorite dish, beverage, drink, etc.

As a chile head, I enjoy receiving posts on hot & spicy stuff...

You are welcome to share your "glorious lunch break" (quote by Mary Ann Sures) moments and other good things in your life.

The submission deadline is at midnight (Pacific Time), on November 21. If you have an entry after this date, please send it by email [ LYCEUM at GMAIL dot COM ] before November 28. The carnival post will be published on November 28. I am planning to arrange a Twitter chat [ hashtag # GoodThingInLife ] on Twubs one week after the post is published, probably on December 6. We could then discuss the entries, talk about your Thanksgiving celebration and upcoming carnivals.

BANNED IMAGES OF MUHAMMAD

2009-11-12T11:04:00.000-08:00

Have you seen the "banned images" of Muhammad? For more information, read the following:

Duke Professor Finishes Yale's Job, Prints Mohammed Images in New Book; FIRE Co-signs Statement of Principle by Adam Kissel.

Muhammad: The "Banned" Images: by Eugene Volokh.

In 2008, under the glare of the controversy over the Danish cartoons, one of Flemming Rose’s few appearances on an American campus was sponsored by Dr. Gary Hull, director of the Program on Values and Ethics in the Marketplace at Duke University. Dr Hull has for five years taught and supervised the Power of Ideas, one of Duke’s most popular honors programs. In late 2001, he made national news when he posted an article calling for a strong military response to the 9/11 attacks. Duke pulled his website, but reinstated it after the action gained wide publicity. (About page - MuhammadImages.com)

"If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter." — George Washington

Related: My post, MUHAMMAD CARTOON CONTROVERSY: ONE YEAR LATER.

THE BERLIN WALL

2009-11-09T23:59:00.000-08:00

Image via Wikipedia

How did you commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall?

Related: My post, PAN-EUROPEAN PICNIC 1989.

CRUSH IT BOOK AND TEA TIME

2009-10-31T20:02:00.000-07:00

I recently got the question by a former business partner if I had interest in participating in a new project regarding tea. I have been a tea drinker since my childhood. I started to import tea from Hong Kong and Taiwan after my trip in Asia in 1992. [Editor's comment: Here is a different way of brewing your tea...]

I will talk to a former classmate about becoming our tea expert and source of quality teas. She has worked with the promotion of Ceylon tea.

In 2006, I asked a tea shop owner to create Blue Chip Café tea blend (Ceylon, Darjeeling, Lapsang Souchong, blue malva, rum and vanilla).

About a month ago I sent some questions via Twitter to Chris Garrett in time for his interview with Gary Vaynerchuck.

Hi @chrisgarrett my #q4garyvee: Is it correct that you are a tea drinker too? Do you like other types of beverages, e.g. seabuckthorn juice? 12:36 PM Oct 1st from web

@chrisgarrett #q4garyvee: Re. tea & sea-buckthorn. I'm a passionate tea drinker & I will work as a social media enthusiast for a sea-b. co. 12:58 PM Oct 1st from web

Hi @chrisgarrett my #q4garyvee: I recently bought several books on social media and personal branding. http://bit.ly/gSm3a More book tips? 1:10 PM Oct 1st from web

I received Crush It on October 29 and finished reading it the next day.

[Editor's note: If you want to support my blogging in a monetary way, please feel free to click on above affiliate link and purchase the book at Amazon.]

Lo and behold! In appendix b: five business ideas I won't get to - they're yours, you could read the following on page 140:

a tea blog

I think the tea market in the United States is about to blow up, and for the person who wants to educate and entertain the masses there will be enormous opportunity to build a site much like Wine Library TV, Offer a tea-of-the-month club and you'll be in serious business.

Some ideas for the site:

Tea reviews.
Tea and food.
Health studies on tea.
Tea trade.
Activities with tea enthusiasts.

[Editor's note: Here is a video clip and Halloween greeting! Please note the spooky "ghost filter" and the Halloween candle burning in the background.]

Related: My posts, CASH IN ON SOUR GRAPES and GOODTHING IN LIFE CARNIVAL AND CHAT.

A LOVELY KITTY I SAW TODAY

2009-10-23T06:08:00.000-07:00

Hello again to Martin's readers--I thought I'd post a little update from Hungary, where we are celebrating the anniversary of the 1956 revolution. It being a holiday, the traffic has been calm, so I decided to take advantage of it: I put on my inline skates and hit this road, which leads to a secluded little suburb called Pinnyéd. That is where I met this charming young kitty and her somewhat older brother, who were relaxing on a fence and seemed quite happy to provide me with a photo opportunity. Ain't they just cute?

UPDATE:
[Editor's note: Roland, Great catblogging! I have updated this post because I couldn't find the comment field at the moment. Maybe something has happened at Blogger HQ. I will submit your post to the Friday Ark #266 at The Modulator.]

GOODTHING IN LIFE CARNIVAL AND CHAT

2009-10-21T13:58:00.000-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

After I read Gus Van Horn's post, Cooking as a Hobby, I have decided to "kick it up a notch" and start something called #GoodThing in Life Carnival & Chat.

I enjoy reading your "good eats" (to use Alton Brown's wording) posts. I haven't been able to find an ongoing carnival of recipes lately and I wanted to participate now and then in this kind of blogging. Maybe it is time to start a Good Life (#GoodThing on Twitter) blog series with recipes? For inspiration, read my post, Food Trip.

From FOOD TRIP:

I will start to write more posts on the culinary industry, gastronomy and other food related topics. My long-range goal is to write an e-book on the Good Life, e.g., tea, wine, chocolate and chile pepper. I am on the quest to find special "hot & spicy" places all around America. (EGO, July 25, 2009.)

The food recipes carnival will be mixed up with other good things in life as described in my post, NOTE FROM EGO EDITOR:

At the end of the week, I will use the odd phrase "Thank God It’s Friday" with posts on the good life, e.g. wine and other beverages, recipes, and "glorious lunch break" (quote by Mary Ann Sures) moments. (EGO, August 27, 2008.)

I am planning to kick-off the carnival during the Thanksgiving weekend. Please send your entries to me by email [Lyceum AT Gmail DOT com] before Sunday, November 22. It would be great to have some kind of chat in conjunction with the carnival. I am thinking of using Twubs or Tinychat. Please come with suggestions on how we could have a live session on this topic. If you are interested in hosting a carnival in the future, please send me an email or write a comment.

Here are some food for thought material and tasty links for your reading / viewing pleasure:

Martini by Hot For Words.

Related: My post, PERSIAN LIME MARTIN(I).

What Wine Pairs With Cereal? – Episode #734 by Gary Vaynerchuk.

Related: My post, CASH IN ON SOUR GRAPES.

What I Learned From the Food Channel About Developing a Niche by Anita Campbell.

Good Things by Amy Mossoff.

My posts, CARNIVAL OF THE DANISH RECIPES and CARNIVAL OF THE RECIPES.

Cheers!

Say What? by John Cox.

MELTING POT AND INNOVATIVE IDEAS

2009-10-20T16:44:00.000-07:00

Please read my new post, The Melting Pot Bubbles with Innovative Business Ideas, on Open Forum.

Image source: screenshot of Open Forum.

Related: My posts, IMMIGRANT VISA PROGRAM and USA - LAND OF OPPORTUNITY.

BAD BLOG ACTION DAY

2009-10-15T13:24:00.000-07:00

I found out via Chris Guillebeau's post, Avoiding False Dichotomies, that it is Blog Action Day (BAD) today. The topic is "climate change"... I want to change the intellectual climate by publishing this post!

Related: MICHAEL GRIFFIN ON CLIMATE by Roland Horvath.

EXPLORING AMERICA ON COLUMBUS DAY

2009-10-12T23:53:00.001-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

How did you celebrate Columbus Day? I paid a tribute to the great explorer by reading passages from Thomas A. Bowden's book, The Enemies of Christopher Columbus, and thinking of my future exploration of the land of opportunity.

In the news: Is Columbus Day Sailing Off the Calendar? - The Wall Street Journal.

UPDATE 10/13/09:

Columbus Day Celebrates Western Civilization

BACK TO BASICS

2009-10-06T23:58:00.000-07:00

I am glad to see that my post on Open Forum, Productivity Tools For Your Worklife, has been "retweeted" so many times. I want to highlight C. Scyphers, who gave a short & sweet summary of my post:

scyphers says: Tips for managing time: (OpenForum) Recap; Actual inbox, empty email, mindmap, small tasks, take notes, always improve (1st October 4:19, Tweetmeme / Twitter.)

Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends, wrote the following comment on my post:

Martin, good article! I have tried, but I find it impossible to a zero inbox -- or even close to zero, say 30 unread emails. Unfortunately, my unread emails number in the 3-figures or 4-figures. Of course, most of those are monitoring emails, such as Google Alerts, or newsletter subscriptions, or email notifications about comments on my various blogs. I've tried setting up special folders and automatically pushing certain emails to those folders so I can review them later. That helps. But even so, unread emails just accumulate in my inbox. Then eventually they get archived, and that helps keep the numbers down. Of course, my business is mainly Web-based and 99% of everything we do involves email. But I wonder if others have the same problem? -- Anita (Open Forum, idea hub - topic: innovation, October 2009.)

As I said in my post, I have struggled with maintaining an empty email inbox for a long time. At the moment, I have 8794 messages in the inbox... I have to archive them and start from scratch again. I am sure that the GTDInbox is a great application and solution to this problem. Please read, Why Email is Addictive (listen to the rats), for a possible explanation to the email "problem"...

Amanda Stillwagon, editor of Small Business CEO, has used an excerpt of my post in her post, Work Smarter With Productivity Tools. Please feel free to leave a comment here, at SMBCEO.com, or a vote at bizSugar.

I will go back to basics and use a low-tech solution:

Stack of index cards with a clip, a.k.a a Hipster PDA. I am using pre-printed to-do cards by Stiernholm Consulting.
Small pens. I am using a TEC pico pen and a Fisher space pen.
Notebooks. I am using Moleskine notebooks.

For inspiration, I will participate in Stephen Smith's "work.life.creativity" forum and continue to read Todoodlist by Nick Cernis. [Editor's note: If you are interested to read Todoodlist and at the same time support my blogging, please click the "buy now" button. I wonder if I have to add a disclosure to this post? Read Duncan Riley's post, My FTC Disclosure, and have you done yours yet?]

MICHAEL MOORE AND HIS HATE STORY

2009-10-01T23:08:00.000-07:00

Here is an excerpt from Jonathan Hoenig's article, Michael Moore Is Clueless on 'Capitalism':

After making an unpaid cameo in his last movie, I have no interest in seeing Michael Moore’s new film bashing capitalism. But even from the few interviews I’ve caught, it is quickly apparent that Moore is ignorant – obviously willingly so – of exactly what capitalism is. In a popular clip now circulating online, Moore incoherently struggles to describe capitalism as “the legal system which allows this greed to take place,” quickly suggesting that “the regulation and rules that used to keep these people in check…” -- businesspeople we can presume -- is “no longer is keeping them in check.” (October 1, 2009, SmartMoney.com.)

Related: My post, PICK A BOOK.

UPDATE 10/05/09: Read mtnrunner2's post, A Review of Michael Moore's "Capitalism: A Love Story" at Fun With Gravity.

NOTES ON BOOKS AND NOTEBOOKS

2009-09-30T07:58:00.000-07:00

I recently received the following books:

Love Is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends by Tim Sanders. [Editor's note: I will write a review of this book for Small Business Trends.]

Personality Not Included: Why Companies Lose Their Authenticity And How Great Brands Get it Back, Foreword by Guy Kawasaki by Rohit Bhargava.

Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith.

Six Pixels of Separation: Everyone Is Connected. Connect Your Business to Everyone. by Mitch Joel.

The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web by Tamar Weinberg.

The Plan-as-You-Go Business Plan and 3 Weeks to Startup by Tim Berry.

Talking about books, Jan Ekbom mentioned to me that he had bought several books by Ayn Rand in Swedish at the book fair in Gothenburg. I went to the book fair on Sunday and bought some notebooks by Moleskine.

Moleskine Volant - plain notebook with 54 detachable pages. (6.5x10.5 cm)
[Editor's note: What should I put as a reward? "As a reward: $"]

Moleskine Volant, Weekly Notebook Diary (hard cover) with address book insert (9x14 cm, 208 pages) and TEC pico pen.

Moleskine notebook diary in action!

Moleskine weekly notebook diary (hard cover) opened with expandable inner pocket. Formatted to-do cards.

Moleskine notebooks in three sizes: 6.5x10.5, 9x14 & 13x21 cm.

I will get a New York City Notebook when I visit the Big Apple again...

Recommended reading: Moleskine: The Guide by Nick Cernis and Why Moleskine Is The Model For Newspaper Survival by Jon Bernstein.

Image via Wikipedia

POST ON PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS

2009-09-30T05:31:00.000-07:00

What kind of productivity tools do you use in your worklife? Read my post, Productivity Tools For Your Worklife, on Open Forum.

Image source: screenshot of Open Forum.

READING TWEETS WITH BRIZZLY

2009-09-29T02:24:00.000-07:00

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

I haven't published any new posts for some time, but I have been microblogging during this time. You could follow me on Twitter, FriendFeed, Posterous and Tumblr.

I will start to use Brizzly when I am reading and writing tweets. It is a new, web-based Twitter client. I have been using Twitter's standard dashboard, Seesmic's desktop and in-browser. Read Jennifer Leggio's post, Brizzly takes the guesswork out of using Twitter.

If you want to have an invitation to Brizzly, go to my tweet message:

@Brizzly says: "All the cool kids are using Brizzly! Don't miss out - use this invitation link, good for 10 people." http://bit.ly/SVyO7

40 YEARS OF SPACE TECHNOLOGY

2009-09-16T15:46:00.000-07:00

How did you commemorate the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing? I wrote a new post (The Space Race Is Finding New Heights) for Open Forum.

Image source: screenshot of Open Forum.

EVOLUTION OF EGO WORKSPACE

2009-09-14T19:59:00.000-07:00

Image by David Reber via Flickr

[Editor's note: I started to write a draft of this post on 08/02/09. It has taken a long time to "chew", process & clarify stuff. Due to the "organized chaos" I am going back and forth between the different steps of the workflow process. I am often trying to collect, process, organize, review and do things at the same time! I am feeling a bit more at ease now when I have finished reading David Allen's book, Making It All Work: Winning at the Game of Work and Business of Life. The book has given me new fuel and energy to kick-off this ongoing journey of getting things done. Let's roll & pluck the day! Please feel free to join the conversation on GTD, productivity best practices, worklife, etc.! At the moment, I am especially interested to receive tips on podcast shows on this topic.]

I have been thinking of writing a longer post on my development of my worklife for some time. One big part of improving my productivity is clear the workspace and to set up the right "buckets". I have a picture clear on how to create a good workflow process, but I get overwhelmed now and then about all my old stuff that I have to go through. I have spent several days of my "vacation" to clean up things and I am starting to see the "light in the tunnel"...

I read Stephen Smith's post, The Evolution of a GTD Workspace, and that triggered me to write a comment on GTD Times. Stephen Smith then wrote the following tweet message @hdbbstephen on July 17:

So, here it goes...

This is picture of Morris the cat stretching out on the computer desk. The photo is taken in the beginning of 2009 (February). I had plenty of piles on the desk and in the in-basket.

Here is a more recent photo Morris (July 15).

I started to set up the tickler file that I bought from Stiernholm Consulting.

Starting to assemble the tickler file...

Ready to file stuff!

Filing an invoice to be paid on a specific date.

Tickler file

How to Get Started with Getting Things Done by Robert Landon.

Time to check different sections of my workspace.

My bulletin board. The toy crusader is from my childhood. He has misplaced his lance and horse, but he will continue his fight... Do you know where I could get a Betsy Ross flag pin?

Picture of Morris the cat. 2009 overview calendar.

Bookshelf with books.

More books, course and reference material.

In-basket with file folders and to-do note cards by Stiernholm Consulting.

I start out the week on Monday morning by listening to David Stiernholm's podcast with "tips on how to create good structure and efficient work procedures for you and your organization." The weekly newsletter includes a PDF and an audio file (MP3).

I will start to take time at the end of the week with a review and a brainstorming session. I know that I have been procrastinating to get started due to all the old stuff that I have to get through before I could get ahead and continue forward. I have been looking for the new "ultimate" and cool gadget in order to motivate myself to dig into the piles of stuff. I have to go through a kind of mental "shock therapy," collecting all the old stuff and dump into the in-basket and then "force" myself to go through it, piece by piece. I have been spending some time this summer "setting up the right buckets" and going through "ancient archives" at the same time. I know that I will fall off the "wagon" now and then and it will probably take a year or two before I have integrated my personalized productivity habit so it becomes a natural part of my worklife.

Here is a list of things that I will be dealing with in the future:

Desks:

Keep the computer desk in tidy fashion and give the in-basket a "VIP" position on it.

Start cleaning off the mahogany desk, including the in-basket. Should I have reference material here in the study room?

Go through the computer desktop on a regular basis. Keep files "fenced in". Look at the wallpaper and get inspired!

I recently purchased GoalEnforcer. I will use it as a combined project management / mindmapping / brainstorming tool. I will play around with this program during this autumn.

GTD template

Next action...

I will start to use and review GTDagenda sometime in the near future.

I have started to use GTDinbox, but I have to get back to scratch regarding the inbox again. I had >22,500 email messages at one time. I had to do dump them into an archive. I now have >6000 email messages in the inbox. I should visualize the stack of 6000 papers and get going... ;)

I will come to grip of the situation and acquire an insight of my workstyle. According to ACCO Brands Corporation's workstyle finder, I am classified as follows:

Expressive Work Style

You are a free spirit with a plan. You know what works for you, and you build your work life around your individual needs. You know where you're going, and you have a good idea of how to get there, but you're flexible -- you're not afraid to take a few side trips along the way. When a project is important to you, you are very organized and efficient and manage your time well. You recognize the equal importance of appearance and content, and you strive to balance the two in everything you do. You pick and choose what you are going to pay attention to, depending on what priority is at the top of your list on any given day. (ACCO.com, "workstyle finder survey results.")

I want to end this post with a photo of my new favorite productivity tool... Pico Pen!

[Editor's note to Christer Sjöback: Thank you very much giving me another pen!]

MAKING IT ALL WORK

2009-09-13T23:33:00.000-07:00

I have now finished reading Making It All Work: Winning at the Game of Work and Business of Life by David Allen. I will publish my anticipated draft post on the evolution of my workspace on Monday, September 14, as an open thread post for further discussions on how to get things done with a steady control and a clear perspective of your worklife.

FOOD CARNIVALS

2009-09-12T22:39:00.000-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

Are you following some food carnivals that are published on a regular basis? It is stated on the Blog Carnival site that the Seasonal Food Festival will be published on September 21 at Naturally Food. I wonder why the submission deadline is dated already on September 1.

Talking about food, did you celebrate Bacon Day? [Editor's comment: How about Danish bacon?]

Related: My post, CARNIVAL OF THE RECIPES.

PLASTICIZED CAT

2009-09-12T20:56:00.000-07:00

My brother took this photo of Morris some years ago, printed it and laminated it. I had it on a wall during my time in America. I will bring it with me when I am returning to the Land of Opportunity.

Do you see The Stars and Stripes pin on the bulletin board? I look forward to listen to Yaron Brook's speech during the 09/12/09 March on Washington D.C .

Morris the cat.

9/11 8 YEARS LATER

2009-09-11T03:25:00.000-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

I will update this post during the day. Please read and remember. I wonder how I will react when I visit Ground Zero in New York City.

My post, BLACK THURSDAY: REMEMBER 20010911.

Better a Day Early Than a Day Late by Dan Edge.

Eight years later, what have we accomplished? by Elan Journo. I have to get his book, Winning the Unwinnable War: America's Self-crippled Response to Islamic Totalitarianism.

UPDATE:

Four Important Articles for this God-Awful by Craig Biddle.

MY Blue Sky by Gus Van Horn.

[Editor's note: Please give me tips on reading material so I could continue to update this post.]

DONATIONS

2009-09-10T22:53:00.000-07:00

I will follow the example of a good friend and send an extra donation to The Ayn Rand Institute on September 11, 2009. Read Elan Journo's op-ed, America fights self-crippled war on terror.

Talking about donations, I have removed TipJoy's micro-donation service from the template due to the fact that they had to shut down. From the post, So long, and thanks for all the fish:

When we evaluate why there's been so much hype about payments on Twitter, and yet so little traction for us (and even far less for our competitors) it is clear to us that the reason is that a 3rd party payment service doesn't add enough value. We strongly believe that social payments will work on a social network, provided that they're done within the platform and not as a 3rd party. "Simple, social payments" is *the* philosophy needed to do digital payments right, but once a service groks that, they need only to implement it on their own. We've been the thought leaders in this space, we see the hype and excitement, and yet we know very intimately the difficulties in gaining actual traction. The only way to get around this is for the platforms themselves to control payments - then all people wanting to operate on that platform would have to play along. We believe that a payments system directly and officially integrated into social networks such as Twitter and Facebook will be a huge success.

Thank you to everyone who has supported and helped us along the way. (tipjoy.com :: our 2 ¢, August 20, 2009.)

If you value reading EGO and want to support my blogging, here are some ways you could do it:

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the "Donate" button. You will be directed to a secure page [ https://www.paypal.com ] PayPal. You don't have to have a PayPal account in order to send a donation. You could use your credit card if you want.

If you want to show your gratuity in a more public way, you could use ScratchBack. If you send a donation of $10, you will get listed on the top list. You add a link URL and a describing text of the site you want to promote on my blog. [Editor's note: If you are curios about position #3, "x", read Damon Hougland's post, The Story Behind PayPal X. In this instance, someone tipped me, but didn't complete the payment. I went in and approved it anyway in order to test the system. I think I will get a response from someone at "PayPal X", sooner or later... I want to send a thank-you note to BizSugar and Small Business CEO for their donations.]

If you want to give me stuff instead of money, please check out my wish list on Amazon. You are welcome to give me suggestions on things you think I need in my worklife as a blogger and a social media enthusiast.

Here is an excerpt from my post, SPONSOR AND SUPPORT EGO BLOG:

If you want to become an EGO "ambassador" and walking "billboard," feel free to purchase stuff from my online stores. If you want to spread the good word, buy an EGO stamp and send a snail mail to a friend. (EGO, 02/01/09.)

You are welcome to come up with more ways to support my blogging. I look forward to hear your feedback and read your comments. Please spread the good word! Thank you! John Cox's post, AUCTION!: How Would You Like To Have....., could give you some ideas...

Blogger's Cycle

NEW FEATURES ON EGO BLOG

2009-09-10T15:29:00.000-07:00

Image by luc legay via Flickr

I have added a couple of new features in order to "kick it up a notch" and to align the two right columns a bit. I look forward to your comments and feedback. I have seen that the Firefox browser doesn't always load all the elements of the template in the correct way. I don't use Internet Explorer so much at the moment, but it seems to work fine. The Chrome browser doesn't have all the bells and whistles, so I don't count on getting all the stuff displayed in the right way. I haven't tested how it looks in Opera. As I said before, if you want a simple and basic version of the content, please subscribe to EGO RSS feed (posts and comments) or read the blog on your mobile phone.

Spread The Good Word! - I have added a badge by Uprinting.com. Look out for giveaways, discounts on business card, brochures, posters and other printing material.

About - See my vCard powered by Card.ly for contact details.

Amazon - I have added a favorite section on Amazon. I am thinking of recommending books, videos and other stuff on a regular basis. If you are interested in my suggestions and want to support my blogging, please consider to check out my recommendations on Amazon. Please feel free to give me tips on books and other things that belong to the good life category.

Featured Video - The new video is titled, Why Businessmen Love Atlas Shrugged.

Video Bar - Four videos by The Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights.

TwitPic - My photos.

Search EGO - Use Google search engine on EGO blog. Find stuff on "This Blog", "Linked From Here", "SUPPORT EGO! SHOP @:", "My Blog List", "Blogroll", "Top Tabs" and "From the archives". The search results will appear on the top of the page.

Labels - Same thing as Categories. This section is listed as a "cloud". For example, "template" is placed on the list according to how many times (47) I have tagged a blog post with the "template" label.

What Do You Read? - A new poll. I want to get a sense of what you like to read during the week. You are welcome to come up with new daily items. I am thinking of starting with the "book of the moment" series again.

Monday: Open thread post.
Tuesday: Tuesday Tech.
Wednesday: Midweek wrap blogrolling.
Thursday: Venting with Thor’s hammer.
Friday: T.G.I.F. good life post.
Saturday: Carnival blogging.
Sunday: Future podcasts. Workflow review.

I want to keep a weekly schedule of some sort in order to have a rough guideline and structure for my blogging.

Support EGO By: - I am conducting this poll one more time.

Checking out ads?
Placing your ads?
Sending donations?
Sponsorship?
Shopping @ EGO stores?

More about donations and how you could support my blogging in my next post.

Wibiya toolbar - I have added an interactive toolbar at the bottom of the page. You could search the site, translate the page, read a random blog post, share a post in different ways (Delicious, Stumbleupon, Digg, etc.), connect with Facebook and become a member of EGO community. [Editor's note: I had to remove ShareThis due to layout problems in the post. Maybe I will add it later on again. I will create an EGO fan page on Facebook at some point in time. I have a network on Facebook called NetworkedBlogs.] You could also join the conversation and jump on the Twitter dashboard.

IPHONE 3GS AND FILOFAX

2009-09-09T18:15:00.000-07:00

Image by six steps  via Flickr

I have problem with my smartphone at the moment. About a year ago, I had similar "bugs" with my mobile phone. Maybe it is time to look into a new type of phone. I must say that iPhone 3GS seems to include several features that could be very useful for my worklife.

Talking about mobile phone, I am glad to see that some of my readers have started to read EGO blog on a mobile device. You could see a MoFuse counter at the bottom of the page. It says "29 mobile by MoFuse" at the moment.

I must say that I have plans to start using my old Filofax again... Maybe an iPhone together with the Evernote application could be the perfect fit when I am on the move. My physical hands-on backup system could be my Filofax calendar and the to-do note cards with symbols for different places. [Editor's note: Called "contexts" in GTD lingo.]

Reading material:

Passport to prosperity by Nicholas Bannister.
Why a Filofax? by David Mackay.
Putting Off Procrastination by Nan (Inky).

UPRINTING BLOG SPONSORSHIP PROGRAM

2009-09-09T04:15:00.000-07:00

I have joined a blog sponsorship program by Uprinting.

A Brochures Printing Company

I am ready to join BNI (Business Network International) in the near future, so I need to get more business cards. Have you bought stuff from Uprinting?

MENTAL NOTE ON LABOR DAY

2009-09-07T23:26:00.000-07:00

How did you spend Labor Day? From my post, OPEN THREAD ON LABOR DAY:

Image by daliborlev via Flickr

How are you spending Labor Day? The members of the "working class" and the labor unions are taking a day off on May 1st in order to wave red flags and shouting proletarian slogans.

Feel free to write a comment on your career and work, today's weather climate, or something else that you think could get the conversation and the open thread going... (EGO, 09/01/08.)

Read Celebrate Mental-Labor Day and listen to The Meaning of Labor Day.

Talking about mental work, I will finish reading Making It All Work: Winning at the Game of Work and Business of Life by David Allen during this week and then publish my anticipated draft post on the evolution of my workspace.